Feds Drop Most Charges Against Man Who Linked to Anonymous’ Stolen Data

Federal prosecutors in Texas have moved to drop all but one of the 12 fraud charges against Barrett Brown, a writer charged with crimes that involved data stolen by a member of Anonymous.

In a motion to dismiss (.PDF), the government today offered no reason for the move. Brown still faces a single charge of possession of stolen credit card numbers with intent to defraud, and a separate indictment for threatening an FBI agent.

The move comes a day after Brown’s defense attorneys filed a 48-page motion to dismiss the charges against him, on grounds that the government failed to substantiate that Brown had committed a crime. It also comes just as the Electronic Frontier Foundation was preparing to file an amicus brief next Monday on behalf of several journalism groups that have expressed support for Brown.

Brown, whose prosecution threatened to become a First Amendment test case, was charged with 12 counts centered around a link he posted in a chat room that pointed to a file containing data stolen from the intelligence firm Stratfor, or Strategic Forecasting. The data, stolen by Jeremy Hammond, a member of the loosely affiliated Anonymous collective, included company emails as well as credit card numbers belonging to subscribers of Stratfor’s service.

Brown didn’t steal the data but simply copied a hyperlink from one public chatroom and reposted it to another. Eleven of those charges accused him of aggravated identity theft for possessing and trafficking in stolen authentication features — which authorities identified as the three- and four-digit card verification value (CVV) that is printed on the back of the cards.

The twelfth charge, for access device fraud, accused Brown of illegally possessing the stolen cards — presumably cards that were found on his computer after he downloaded the Stratfor cache himself.

Brown’s attorneys, in their motion to dismiss (.pdf), had argued that the link Brown posted went to data that someone else had published and that charging him for simply linking to content was a First Amendment violation.

They also argued that the trafficking and identity theft charges were misapplied since the CVV was not actually an authentication feature. An authentication feature is defined by the law as something that a card issuer uses to verify the authenticity of a card — such as a hologram — to ensure that someone is not using a fraudulently produced card. But the CVV is actually a security feature used to verify that the person making a purchase possesses the card (or possesses the CVV number) and is therefore presumed to be authorized to make the purchase.

Brown has been in custody since he was arrested in 2012 while he was in the middle of an online chat. In addition to the access device fraud charge, Brown also faces separate obstruction charges related to his effort to conceal his laptop from investigators who searched his apartment and his mother’s home. He also faces charges over threats he made online to an FBI agent.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation expressed relief that the government had dropped the linking charges.

“In prosecuting Brown, the government sought to criminalize a routine practice of journalism—linking to external sources—which is a textbook violation of free speech protected by the First Amendment,” the group said in a statement. “Although this motion is good news for Brown, the unnecessary and unwarranted prosecution has already done much damage; not only has it harmed Brown, the prosecution — and the threat of prosecution it raised for all journalists — has chilled speech on the Internet. We hope that this dismissal of charges indicates a change in the Department of Justice priorities. If not, we will be ready to step in and defend free speech.”

Homepage image: FreeBarrettbrown

Update 1:15pm: To add quote from EFF and information about an amicus brief it planned to file and to clarify the number of charges Brown was facing.